By Elissa Sanci
Elissa Sanci is a writer on the discovery team. She has found that clear ice makes carbonated drinks taste better, and citronella candles don’t work.
Have you ever felt personally victimized by paper-thin, scratchy, too-small hotel towels? I know I have.
After a long day out exploring whatever new city or national park I’m visiting, I usually want nothing more than to take a hot shower, then lounge in my towel to lazily air-dry as I swipe through the day’s photos.
But as a women’s size 16, I’ve rarely found a hotel towel that actually closes around my hips—so more often than not, I’m tasked with drying off and getting dressed in a steamy bathroom right after I shower. It’s a sensory nightmare: The sandpaper-esque towels are rough and irritating on my sensitive skin and, ironically, they’re usually terrible at absorbing water, so my clothes end up sticking to my still-damp body.
It has driven me absolutely bonkers, but since I’ve never had room in my bags to pack my own fluffy towels, I’ve assumed this tiny towel conundrum was something I’d just have to muscle through with gritted teeth.
Until, that is, I accidentally found the perfect solution while hunting for a new swimsuit cover-up on Amazon: the Kfubuo Surf Poncho.
This lightweight, size-inclusive poncho made of absorbent, quick-drying polyester feels soft against my skin. It has a hood, a spacious front pocket, and comes in 12 colors and patterns.
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A beach-towel/cover-up hybrid that’s also the perfect travel towel
When I bought the Kfubuo Surf Poncho seven months ago, I had no idea it would become a travel essential. I was merely looking for a new bathing suit cover-up ahead of my honeymoon in Mexico, and it met all my requirements: It was large and roomy, offered full-body coverage from the sun, it came in fun colors and patterns, and, at $20, it was super cheap. That it doubled as a towel was just an added perk.
To my surprise and delight, the Kfubuo poncho has since proved to be the single best poolside cover-up I’ve ever used. I haven’t tested multiple towel ponchos for this article, and you could spend more money on a higher-quality model, but I’ve been thrilled with how this poncho has served me on trips around the world.
I was a little skeptical when it first arrived—as some reviews on Amazon have pointed out, it had a strong, plasticky smell that made me scrunch my nose, but the smell disappeared after one run through the washer-dryer.
Much of what makes this oversized poncho so effective as a cover-up is what makes it just as useful as a travel towel. Made of super-soft polyester, the sleeved, hooded poncho succeeds at what most hotel towels fail to do: It absorbs moisture rather than pushing it around my body, feels gentle on my skin, and, best of all, fits my body with plenty of room to spare.
Oversize and baggy, this poncho is able to accommodate up to a size 6XL. It fits like a muumuu, falling just beneath my knees, and has loose, three-quarter sleeves that almost reach my wrists. This full coverage comes in handy whether I’m using the Kfubuo poncho in my hotel room or down by the pool. Plus, it’s roomy enough that I’m able to fully change underneath it.
As a shower towel, it’s also able to wick away water from hard-to-reach spots (like my back) with little effort. And it’s freeing to step out of the shower and shimmy into the poncho, knowing that I can leave the steam-box bathroom and walk around my hotel room without fear of flashing my travel companions.
As a cover-up, it keeps most of my skin protected from the unforgiving sun—but it’s thin enough that I can still sit poolside without overheating. The lightweight polyester dries quickly, especially when it’s outside in the heat, so the poncho never feels too waterlogged or heavy. The thin material also makes it the ideal travel towel; it folds down flat, taking up much less room in a suitcase than a standard bath towel.
Similar in style to hooded sweatshirts, the Kfubuo poncho includes a hood and a massive front pocket. The hood has (literally) saved my skin on the occasions I have forgotten to pack a sun hat. And the front pocket is so big that it’s proven useful in all different situations: In Mexico, I used it to carry a tube of sunscreen, sunglasses, and my Kindle down to the beach; in Alaska, I stuffed it with my toiletries before trotting through the woods towards a campground shower house.
Since acquiring my poncho at the end of 2023, I’ve brought it on every subsequent trip I’ve taken this year—and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s made traveling to new places so much more enjoyable. Because while the tiny towels stocked in hotel bathrooms still make me inexplicably mad, they aren’t my problem anymore.
This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Catherine Kast.
Meet your guide
Elissa Sanci is a senior staff writer for Wirecutter’s discovery team based in Denver. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times, Woman’s Day, Marie Claire, and Good Housekeeping. When she’s not testing TikTok-famous products or writing about car garbage cans, you can find her hiking somewhere in the Rockies or lying on the couch with a bowl of chips balanced on her chest. There is no in-between.